Local Transit

Who controls the streets? Cars, buses, bikes, pedestrians, motorcycles, skateboards or scooters? It's a question perplexing big cities, as new business models and the sharing economy exert their influence. That's the underlying issue in Bird Rides Inc. v. City of Beverly Hills.

A nine-month delay for additional safety tests is understandable for a project of this magnitude. The faster and less costly links to London’s main airport Heathrow will lift tourism as long as Crossrail provides frequent service to the airport's busiest terminal, Terminal 5.

Average train delays of 36 seconds every year? Who could complain about that kind of service? The Japanese icon JR East is one of the subjects in Skift's recent sixth anniversary book, For the Long Haul, Lessons on Business Longevity, whose chapters we are excerpting for you here in the coming weeks.

Sometimes you can do well by doing right. Uber is correct to offer insurance to its drivers in South African cities in case of their death or injury due to violent attacks or crime. That move should also help it woo more drivers to sign up.

This sounds like a good idea, an electricity-powered car-like vehicle that shuttles people about town that's one-third the size of a parking space. And yet those parking spaces are paved with the skeletons of failed urban transit experiments.

Electric scooters may play a heightened role in the plethora of urban transport options for people and businesses. In places like Colombia, for example, they are already a popular transportation mode. As startups get into gear, larger ridesharing companies may bring them into the fold.